Romana attended the Time Lord Academy when Braxiatel was a tutor there. She hated it. Her classmates were jealous of her effortless academic superiority, nicknaming her "the Ice Maiden". While there, she was contacted by the spirit of Pandora, who told her she had manipulated Romana's genetic make-up through the centuries with the Imperiatrix Imprimatur to create the perfect vessel for her to rule Gallifrey again.

Romana told Braxiatel, who hypnotised her to forget not only Pandora, but also him. She recalled only having heard of him through his art collection before her return to Gallifrey from her travels. (AUDIO: Lies)

The White Guardian assigned Romana to assist the Fourth Doctor in the quest for the Key to Time, appearing to her as the Lord President of Gallifrey. Though she was much younger than the Doctor, she considered him an academic inferior. The Doctor was initially unwilling to take Romana along and somewhat hostile to her.

They found the first segment on the planet Ribos in the form of a lump of hairy pimple They had to recover it against the will of Graff Vynda-K. During this time the two bonded. Romana came to respect the Doctor for his experience despite his academic failings. (TV: The Ribos Operation)

Romana and the Doctor arrived on the planet Zanak in their search for the second segment of the Key to Time. Here they met the Captain, who used Zanak to materialise around and mine other planets. They discovered that the segment they sought was the planet Calufrax, which had recently fallen victim to Zanak. They retrieved the remaining components of Calufrax, which had been shrunk by the Captain as a trophy, also disabling in the process Zanak's ability to materialise around and destroy other planets. (TV: The Pirate Planet)

The search for the the fourth segment brought them back to Earth, specifically Norfolk in 2011. They faced Millicent Ferril, a woman with the ability to control ferrous metal. The segment was disguised as a meteoroid which Romana destroyed to stop Ferril's plan. It eventually reformed as a statue on Tara. (AUDIO: Ferril's Folly)

On Tara, Romana immediately found the segment was a statue. However, while fleeing a Taran wood beast, she met Count Grendel, who decided to take Romana prisoner. He introduced her to Princess Strella, whose appearence was identical to Romana's. Taking advantage of this likeness, the Count decided Prince Reynart would marry Romana, pretending she was a dancer for Galifrie. Reynart would be killed and the Count would marry his widow. He would then rule as King. However, the Doctor interrupted the wedding and defeated the Count. (TV: The Androids of Tara)

On Delta III, Romana was captured by Swampies and offered as a sacrifice to Kroll. The Doctor freed her, but they were quickly recaptured. This time both the Doctor and Romana were offered in sacrifice in the last of the Seven Holy Rituals of the Swampies. This involved them being stretched by vines, known as creepers, until their backbones broke. The Doctor freed them by resonating his voice and breaking a window so rain water loosened the creepers. The segment was within Kroll himself and the Doctor recovered it. (TV: The Power of Kroll)

The Doctor and Romana went to Atrios for the final segment. Romana was captured by the Shadow and tortured. She was freed with the Doctor's help and the segment was Princess Astra of Atrios herself.

When she regenerated, her new incarnation was based upon Princess Astra. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) This regeneration was a complicated event, with many factors contributing to the change. Romana voluntarily chose to regenerate to purge the malicious influence of Pandora, which had begun to resurface after her ordeal with the Shadow. (AUDIO: Lies) Additionally, when the Key to Time was assembled without the sixth piece, it left Princess Astra and was absorbed by Romana. The strain of this event contributed to the regeneration. (AUDIO: The Key 2 Time - The Chaos Pool) The transformation itself was facilitated by the TARDIS, as the ship briefly assumed Romana's form in a fit of jealousy, trapping the Time Lady in a force field before her regeneration and sharing an adventure with the Doctor. The TARDIS changed in to several different forms before settling on the form of Princess Astra. Realising the error of its ways after a single adventure with the Doctor, it released Romana, but not before making her assume the form of Astra. (PROSE: The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe) For much of her life, Romana's new incarnation was unaware of the exact details of her regeneration, only realising the influence of Pandora and the Key to Time well after her time with the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Key 2 Time - The Chaos Pool, AUDIO: Lies)

The first Romana's form would later be used by the Pandora entity when she confronted Romana's second incarnation and Leela and again when Pandora became corporeal after Romana declared herself Imperiatrix, letting it take control of part of Gallifrey to begin a civil war. (AUDIO: Imperiatrix)

Though a young and relatively inexperienced Time Lady, Romana was extremely bright and capable. She had taken a triple first at the Academy. The Doctor had scraped through with the minimal passing score of 51% on his second attempt, information Romana cited to put her achievement in perspective. (TV: The Ribos Operation)

Romana was an exceptionally clever (on par with the Doctor) and slightly bossy person. She shared many of the Doctor's traits. She was haughtier and more "by the book" and was occasionally annoyed by the Doctor's eccentricities. However, she was naive about things outside her experience and occasionally made unwise clothing choices.

Like the Doctor, Romana preferred to think her way out of situations, but was not opposed to force when necessary. She shot a guard to protect others, an act that momentarily saddened her. (TV: The Pirate Planet)

The Doctor threatened to call her "Fred" if she didn't let him call her "just Romana". She chose "Fred", but the Doctor proceeded to call her "Romana." (TV: The Ribos Operation)

After the Doctor was believed to have been killed in the Proxima System, Romana told Mr Dorrick that she and the Doctor initially had an adversarial relationship but that they had gradually become good friends without even noticing it. (AUDIO: The Final Phase)

This incarnation of Romana was perhaps his most fashion conscious companion to date. She had access to a large variety of clothing in the TARDIS wardrobe and changed her clothing frequently. (TV: The Ribos Operation, et al.)

While on Tara, Romana took special care in choosing her clothes. She eventually came across a specific dress for Tara, or at least in that style. (TV: The Androids of Tara)

Romana I was considered particularly good-looking — enough for the Doctor to take notice. (TV: The Pirate Planet)

In 1899, Jago described Romana as "an exquisite exemplification of elegance" and "a superior example of the feminine gender." (AUDIO: The Justice of Jalxar)

Romana told the Doctor that she was one hundred and forty when they met, (TV: The Ribos Operation) although her second incarnation later gave her age as one hundred and twenty-five. (TV: City of Death)

In an alternative timeline in which it was standard policy for the Time Lords to sell their temporal technology to the highest bidder and regenerations could be extracted and sold, Romana never travelled with the Doctor. She remained on Gallifrey, married Andred and had a son named Antonin. After being widowed, she resided in her ancestral home, the House of Heartshaven. One of her servants, Vansell, was secretly in the employ of her son. Towards the end of her first incarnation, she met her counterpart from the proper timeline, who was in her second incarnation and had previously served as Lady President of Gallifrey. Although the other Romana used the pseudonym "Lady Astra," she realised her identity almost immediately. After being shot and killed by Antonin, she regenerated into her second incarnation. (AUDIO: Reborn)

For a long time, it was only assumed that this is Romana's first incarnation. There was nothing in any televised episode to indicate this to be so. She was never actually called "Romana I" in any story, televised or otherwise. The nomenclature comes from repetition across several non-fictional reference books, such as The Companions of Doctor Who, that have been written throughout the years. The Gallifrey series finally established that this incarnation attended the Academy, and explicitly stated in-narrative that she was the first Romana. (AUDIO: Warfare)

Mary Tamm agreed to play Romana after being convinced she wouldn't just be a "damsel in distress". However, by the end of Season 16, Tamm felt her character had fallen into that category. This, along with the fact her character had no room to grow in such a small format, left Tamm unwilling to carry on.